Art review: 'Operation Sunshine' scrutinizes environmental issues

Joan Linder's thoughtful and scrupulous research shines in this exhibition.

Written by By Ron Schira - Reading Eagle correspondent

If you go

What: “Operation Sunhine” by Joan LinderWhere: Freedman Gallery of Albright College Center for the Arts, 13th and Bern streets.When: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Friday; 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday; through April 8.For more information: Call 610-921-7541 or visit www.albright.edu/CenterfortheArts.

Reading, PA —

Large scale drawings by artist/educator Joan Linder are showing through April 8 at the Freedman Gallery of Albright College Center for the Arts. Titled "Operation Sunshine," the exhibition relates realistic line renderings of toxic waste sites in upstate New York, along with meticulous drawings of numerous documents related to the contaminated properties and their pertinent headlines.

Linder is an associate professor in the Art Department at University at Buffalo. Her work has been shown throughout the United States as well as at locations in Brazil, Denmark, Germany, Israel, Japan and South Korea.

Her medium of choice is pen and ink, applied with a quill or very fine Rapidograph, approaching this project as much a researcher as an artist. Her focus was the Love Canal neighborhood along the Niagara River, a well-publicized news item that made national headlines. Operation Sunshine, or Project Sunshine, was a series of research studies to ascertain the impact of radioactive fallout on the world's population that was commissioned in the 1950s by the United States Atomic Energy Commission and U.S. Air Force Project Rand.

Some background: During the '40s, the Hooker Chemical Co., now known as Occidental Chemical Corp., deposited more than 20,000 tons of toxic waste on a 16-acre area that used was as the foundation on which the Niagara community was built. When residents became ill, families were forced from their homes; the community abandoned, demolished and closed off. A federal Superfund cleanup ensued, and what now remains is a contaminated section of grass-covered mounds enclosed by a ponderously long chain-link fence.

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The artist, accompanied by a radiation docimeter, positioned herself at a "safe" distance in her car and in exacting detail drew the entire length of fence from the front seat. The images include a few hills, buildings and whatever was in plain view from the road. About 6 inches by 12 feet or more, the drawings fold, stretch or zigzag like an accordion along two horizontal shelves that border on opposite walls of the gallery.

Other pieces boast her skills of observation by representing life-scaled segments of grass or macadam, about 9 by 7 feet each, that if laid flat would equal the space it represents. Additionally, the artist allows for smudges, drops and minor spills as a record of its facture. One of the pieces is a giant rubbing of the street in graphite that conveys an eerie sense of blurred radiography, covertly suggesting the virulent waste that lies beneath.

Special to the Reading Eagle: Ron Schira |
Assorted document depictions can be viewed at "Operation Sunshine," an exhibition from Joan Linder.

Situated about the gallery floor are a number of glass-covered tables that contain hand-drawn replicas of documents, files, forms, reports, maps, graphs, photos, articles and other records that the artist uncovered in her research. Deceptive at first glance, it takes a closer look to discern that these are drawings and not the original printed transcripts.

"My subjects include the banality of mass-produced domestic artifacts; the politics of war; sexual identity and power; and the beauty disclosed in the close scrutiny of natural and man-made structures. This diversity of subject matter is a critical element in my attempt to express the complexity and variety of contemporary life," a statement on Linder's website reads.

The sheer strength of these pieces is in the dogged pursuit of accuracy and the magnitude of the issue she wishes to convey, which in this case throws light on the lack of political attention and financial support for environmental issues, such as those recently expressed in the Flint, Mich., water crisis and the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Unfortunately, like the Love Canal, these upsetting abuses regarding the ecology soon enough vanish into public memory if we are not occasionally reminded by concerned people and artwork, as Linder has shown here.

Contact Ron Schira: life@reading-eagle.com.

If you go

What: “Operation Sunhine” by Joan LinderWhere: Freedman Gallery of Albright College Center for the Arts, 13th and Bern streets.When: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Friday; 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday; through April 8.For more information: Call 610-921-7541 or visit www.albright.edu/CenterfortheArts.